When you eat at a fancy restaurant, a sommelier
can offer you the best wine choice to accentuate your meal. He or she will
select a wine that highlights your dish, bringing out the very best flavor. But
wine isn’t my kryptonite. Ice cream is!
And a few weeks ago, Lauren Scobell and I were pining over the lack of a book /
ice cream guide.

From that very first conversation, this post was
born! Based on my copious experience with ice cream (and books!), here are five
bookish fan favorites and their delicious ice cream pairings.

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling is paired with Breyer’s Black Raspberry Chocolate All Natural Ice Cream. This
unexpected pairing is a nod to Harry’s first visit to Diagon Alley, when Hagrid
buys Harry a raspberry and chocolate ice cream cone from Florean Fortescue’s
Ice Cream Parlour. (You can add a handful of nuts if you’re aiming for canon HP
consumption.)

The Perks of Being a Wallflowerby Stephen Chbosky is
paired with Ben and Jerry’s Cherry
Garcia Ice Cream for an in-book mention: “her favorite ice cream flavor (she said she refuses to eat low-fat
frozen yogurt on principle alone) is Cherry Garcia.” This canon flavor also
fits Charlie’s inner dialogue and questioning nature, with the name of the ice
cream—Cherry Garcia—meaning one thing while being a pun of something else.

The Hunger Gamesby Suzanne Collins is rife with
food-based symbolism, and since Katniss likely never tasted ice cream prior to
leaving District 12, our pairing is entirely focused on the over-the-top
decadence of the Capital: Haagen Dazs 30th
Anniversary Rose Ice Cream. Be warned! Though this President Snow-approved
flavor is popular in Japan, it’s exclusive enough in America that you’ll need
to order it in. “What must it be like, I
wonder, to live in a world where food appears at the press of a button?”

My last pairing is the childhood favorite
of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time
paired with Dreyer’s Rich and Creamy
Chocolate Ice Cream. Not only is chocolate ice cream an old-fashioned staple,
it hearkens to the opening chapter of the book where Meg cannot sleep so she
heads to the kitchen: “I’ll make myself
some cocoa, she decided. —That’ll cheer me up.” This classic YA pairs
beautifully with one of the most popular ice creams.

And
that brings me to the end of my list. So
tell me, what are your favorite ice
cream and book pairings? Answer in the comments below. To get you started, here
are a few ice cream/book pairings from some of your favorite Swoon Authors in
a hand-dandy printable sommelier list. (Pro tip: To see/print the full-size, right click the image and open it in a new tab!)